Dear Mom - Are you a diet dropout?

Dear Mom,

Are you a diet drop-out?  Stop kidding yourself and simply try the "truly all-natural" route!  In order for a diet to truly work, you must want to make a complete transformation, not just a short-term one until you lose the weight because you will end up on the same path you were on before you started the diet (read my previous blog post "Are You Truly Healthy?").  In order to have that hunger for true, lasting results, you must have that hunger for true nutrition and wellness.  You cannot be afraid of eating truly all-natural foods (fruits, vegetables, legumes, lean proteins, whole grains, etc.), tasting vegetables in your smoothies and drinking water without added flavoring. I am not saying that you have to go cold turkey here and can never eat another slice of pizza or a piece of cake ever again.  I am simply saying to choose an everyday lifestyle, where you make the full-fledged effort of consuming truly natural, nutritious foods and engaging in some form of exercise.  

I hear and read excuse after excuse that eating well and choosing a truly nutritious lifestyle is difficult and processed foods is easy.  Well, let me put it this way:

• Is it easy to carry excess weight around?
• Do you feel great eating processed foods?
• Are you scared of being diagnosed with prehypertension, high-blood pressure, high cholesterol, Type 2 Diabetes, etc? 
• Which is easier on the wallet - a medicinal regimen (taking various medications daily because of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diet-induced Type 2 Diabetes, etc.) or simply eating truly nutritious foods? 

Here are my answers to the questions above:

• I feel terrible when I carry excess weight
• I feel like I am more susceptible to illness when I consume mostly processed foods for a long period of time.
• I am terrified if I even see my blood pressure get anywhere close to prehypertension and if cholesterol numbers even got close to being on the high side. 
• I would rather eat nutritious foods that my body truly craves over taking medication everyday - that can get pricey! 

I am not a certified dietician or nutritionist, but honestly I do not need to be in order to know that the consumption of truly natural, nutrition-packed foods and regular exercise is one of the best remedies out there to achieve ultimate wellness (read my previous blog post "Quest to Ultimate Wellness".  If you do not believe me, I challenge you to try it for yourself, for a week and you will find out...you will start to feel better overall.


Processed foods is not part of my daily nutrition plan; however do not get me wrong, if I go to a party/get-together and I want to try some of the foods served that are not on my daily nutrition plan, I will not hold myself back from trying.  One of the major reasons I eat the way I do is because my food choices are truly nutrition-packed (earth-grown foods).  Why does our body crave nutrition-packed foods?  We are living organisms and we also crave foods that come from the earth and natural sources, just like plants crave water & sunlight and animals feed from grass, etc.
 
This is what I would normally eat throughout the course of the day. 


BREAKFAST (choose no more than 2)
1/2 cup - 1 cup: cooked steel cut oats or regular oatmeal

1 egg white + 1 whole egg

1-cup Greek yogurt with fresh or frozen fruit

Large green smoothie with tofu

coffee okay (moderation - no more than 1-2 cups/day)

MORNING SUPPLEMENT - high fiber

Psyllium husk (pure fiber) - mix with drink, mix with yogurt/fruit, smoothie

SNACKS (these are some I typically choose from)

fresh fruits

pistachio nuts, almonds or dry roasted peanuts
peanut butter

fresh salsa with pure corn chips
frozen fruits

salmon packs
homemade fruit, nut & grain bars

LUNCH (eat as much greens you can , 1 heavy grain, 1 protein)

beans (red, black or Edamame)

vegetables (dark green vegetables)

salad (natural dressing balsamic vinegar & olive oil)

salmon or chicken (choose 1)

DINNER (high protein, high greens/low-carb veggies, low grains; similar to lunch)

tacos with ground turkey (extra lean)

fresh chicken salad (homemade dressing)

bean salad

Couscous or quinoa salad

Large green smoothie with tofu

Sweets can be had in moderation, but try to keep it all-natural (low amount of ingredients) - I usually have fruit and a bit of dark chocolate to satisfy my sweet tooth.

#earthgrownfoods
#cravenutrition
#truenutrition
#trulynatural 
#nutritionandwellness 

Now if you are a diet dropout, get back in, but try the all-natural, truly nutritious way!

Tired of expensive nutrition-packed foods?  Get more at discounted prices





Thanks for reading,

Are you truly healthy?

More so now than ever, there is that craze of getting "healthy".  Now, how about staying healthy?

Are you a Weight Watchers, high protein diet, low calorie diet, low-fat diet or any diet drop-out?  No worries, so was I; however, read on...there is is still hope!

Dictionary.com definition of HEALTHY: possessing or enjoying good health or a sound and vigorous mentality

Now, many of us may possess these intentions of desiring good health, but are we really doing what we can to achieve it?  To a certain extent, we are all healthy because we are still living - we are doing something right to keep us alive.  The definition of healthy does not mention a "quick-fix" or a "short-term" solution.  The definition specifically uses the word "possessing", so in order to be truly healthy we must truly possess that desire to have good health.  The desire to have good health should not be a roller coaster - for a short time we are on a high doing great, then for a short time time we are on a low, doing not so great!  This roller coaster does not exemplify a desire to be healthy.  Truthfully, this roller coaster could be more detrimental to our health because we are altering our body chemistry so often and our body experiences NO CONSISTENCY.  

NEWS-FLASH:  There is nowhere in the definition of "healthy" does it say - must be super skinny, super toned or look like a skeleton.  On the flip side, there is nowhere in the definition either that states obesity or over-indulging is okay.    

If one desires good health so much, why is it that there are many in society that are always dieting or are on a "get healthy quick"/short-term weight-loss plan (ie: 30, 60 or 90 day)?  Here is a personal example - for my wedding 9 years ago, I stopped eating sweets for 1-month straight, exercised 2x/day and ate nothing but an apple for breakfast and split a bowl pasta for lunch and dinner.  Did I lose weight?  Of course, I did...in fact about 10lbs in 2-months (and I was already pretty small...dropped down to about 88lbs).  Now, here is what happened after the wedding...I was burnt out from that diet plan I put my body through, so I reverted back to my old self and have not been 88lbs since then.  I deprived my body of the proper nutrition it needed.  Through the years, I have gotten wiser and started to realize what truly works.  Yes, moderation, watching calories, low fat, low sugar, etc. still matters; however, what matters most is TRUE nutrition and being honest with yourself.  Ask yourself this - am I truly providing my body with "true nutrition in order to get those natural results"?

If one truly wants to get "healthy", it should be a long-term plan.  Why put our body through a roller-coaster?  How about a long-term maintenance plan instead?  Stop spending massive amounts of money on products and plans to lose weight, just concentrate on "TRUE NUTRITION", "GOD'S FOOD", "TRULY NATURAL".  There are no shortcuts!  You have to be willing to consume truly nutritious in order to get the truly natural results - rid of the unnatural.  Also, educating yourself on what is truly nutritious is very important.  Do not always rely on what you read on food boxes, since there is a lot out there at that says "all-natural, "healthy", "good for you", etc.  It is a marketing trap!  Do your research!  This is when being honest with yourself comes into play - read ingredients and ask yourself if something is truly nutritious/natural, if it was grown in a garden or engineered in a chemical lab. 

If you concentrate on long-term maintenance focusing on the aforementioned, you will see "natural results" that will truly stick and you will actually start to feel great.  Forget the short-term results...change for the long-run.  My journey has become "My Quest to Ultimate Wellness" - I invite you to read this blog post, too.

Thanks for reading!!  Good luck on your journey!!

Faithfully Yours,